Body of missing tuber found in Sacramento River

HAMILTON CITY -- The search for Brett Olson ended Sunday morning when a fisherman saw his body floating in the Sacramento River.

From the river bank, the fisherman flagged down members of a Search and Rescue team who were on a boat in the river, said Glenn County Sheriff Larry Jones.

At about 10:20 a.m., they recovered the body and then transferred it to another Search and Rescue boat, which took it to the boat ramp at Scotty's Boat Landing, Jones said.

Olson, 20, a student from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, participated in the annual float on Labor Day weekend with thousands of other young adults. He was last seen around 4 p.m. on Sept. 2 on what's known as beer can beach, an area next to Scotty's.

On the Friday before Labor Day weekend, he got a ride to Chico to visit friends at Chico State University and take part in the float.

His body was found near a place called the washout, a mile or two downriver from beer can beach.

Scotty's, which includes a bar, is on River Road, about a mile south of Highway 32. It is on the river's east bank.

Jones said that as far as he knew, Olson's death was the first drowning in connection with the Labor Day float. He said there have been some near drownings, and many tubers have had to be rescued from danger.

It's not known how Olson might have got into trouble in the river. His friends said he had been drinking alcohol but didn't seem "over the edge."

He had done the Labor Day float twice before. He had been a lifeguard in high school and was said to be in good health.

Jones said a toxicology report on the body would be made.

Michael and Elizabeth Olson of Lafayette had been in Chico all week, along with many friends, trying to help look for their son.

The family had offered a $10,000 reward for information that would lead to his safe return.

For them, Sunday morning's efforts started at 10, in the Safeway parking lot on Nord Avenue. There, they joined more than 100 volunteers -- college students, some of whom knew Olson, and family members -- as a starting point for canvassing Chico neighborhoods.

Sheriff Jones said there had been many reports of possible sightings of Olson in and around Chico.

Since the stretch of the river north and south of Scotty's had been searched again and again for a week, it was thought that Olson might be found in Chico or elsewhere.

Those who gathered at the supermarket parking lot set out to different neighborhoods to go door-to-door, delivering posters with Olson's picture, said Gayla Warner, supervisor of the Chico Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS), a group of citizens who assist Chico Police.

She said some of the missing student's friends organized the neighborhood search. They intended to get lots of posters into people's hands and to perhaps talk to someone who had seen Olson.

Before the young people left with the posters, Olson's parents thanked them for their efforts. A local woman said a prayer, hoping for the searchers' success.

When the body was found, Warner said, law-enforcement officials hoped to keep the news from spreading -- at least until the volunteer searchers had returned to the Safeway parking lot at 1 p.m. for a briefing. They hoped to have chaplains there then to help Olson's friends.

However, word that the body had been found got out, and quickly spread via the social media, she said.

Soon after the body was taken ashore, law-enforcement officers had the young man's parents brought from the Safeway parking lot to Scotty's.

After identifying the body, Olson's parents hugged and wept as they stood near the entrance to the boat ramp on River Road.

By 12:30 p.m. or so, some of Olson's friends had returned to the parking lot on Nord Avenue -- about 25 young people could be seen sitting or talking to each other in small groups.

"I'm in a state of shock," one young woman said.

Jones said it didn't surprise him that Olson's body was found a week after his disappearance, despite all the searching of the river that has been done.

What happened is typical, he said. When someone drowns, the body sinks. On the river bottom are lots of branches, dead trees and other debris that have come down in floods. A body can get hung up on them. After a few days, a body will float again, if it's free to move.

Jones said about 10,000 people floated down the river on inner tubes, rafts and other things on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.

He said he and other authorities planned to meet with Chico State University President Paul Zingg concerning the drowning.

"Obviously this will bring about much discussion about what we can do with this event," he said, referring to the Labor Day float.

Last year, some local officials asked Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Loma Rica, to sponsor a bill that would essentially outlaw drinking alcohol on the river on certain holidays. They were concerned about safety, but also the huge cost of providing law enforcement for events like the Labor Day float.

"It takes a tremendous amount of resources," Jones said.

Logue's bill passed, empowering Butte and Glenn counties to ban alcohol on the river on selected holidays. It was thought that with alcohol banned, the float would be much, much smaller.

However, to impose the ban would have taken a four-fifths vote of both the Butte and Glenn county boards of supervisors, Jones said. The vote by Butte supervisors met the four-fifths threshold, but in Glenn County, only three supervisors voted for the ban. So it was not imposed.

Jones said he had favored trying a ban to see if it would work.

The sheriff called the search over the last week "coordinated and intensive."

At any given time, there were probably 25 to 40 people from various agencies searching for Olson.

Taking the lead were the Glenn and Butte county sheriffs' offices and Chico police. Also helping were the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state Department of Fish and Game, California State Parks, the Hamilton City Fire Department, Search and Rescue teams from Yuba and Nevada counties, California Highway Patrol, and the University Police at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Jones said news media were indispensable in getting information out.

Staff writer Larry Mitchell can be reached at 896-7759 or lmitchell@chicoer.com or followed on Twitter, @LarryMitchell7.